Marshall Goldberg: From the Dream Backfield to First Defensive Specialist

After being selected with the 12th overall pick in the 1939 draft (held in December of 1938), Goldberg provided the NFL with a boost by signing with the Cardinals instead of ignoring pro football as many other players did at that time. A broken foot suffered prior to the 1939 season hampered his rookie year performance (under Coach Ernie Nevers). Still, he managed to impress Nevers with his toughness and agility on the field.

In 1940, Goldberg blossomed under the tutelage of new coach Jimmy Conzelman and the two men forged ahead in rebuilding the Chicago Cardinals. By 1941 Goldberg was among the league leaders in rushing and receiving and topped the circuit in kick-off returns, return yardage, and interceptions with seven.

However, he was also drawing rave reviews for his creative, smothering defensive style. Goldberg would attempt to out-think his opponents and generally succeeded. He once recalled: “Each quarterback had a unique way to run one play in order to set up the next play. Once I studied the trends of a quarterback, I would know the sequence and leave before they snapped the ball.”

Goldberg also evaluated the opposing team and learned the individual traits of the players: “You could watch each player and get some clues about where he was going. For example, if a guy’s going deep, his weight would be leaning forward. When you see he’s not leaning forward, then he’s going somewhere else. Usually, he’ll also look in the direction where he’s going to see if it’s clear. If his hand was light at his side, he wasn’t planning on blocking someone either.

I was lucky, but that was some of the stuff you would look for on defense.”

With his natural instincts and quickness, Goldberg was probably the first safety to roam near the line of scrimmage and even “blitz”, as we know it today. Had All-Defensive teams been selected during his career, he would have been a perennial selection on such a squad. The late owner of the Cardinals, Bill Bidwill said in 1999: “There’s nothing new today in defense that Goldberg didn’t do.” He was rarely off the field and continued to field kick-offs as well. In 1942, he paced the league in that category again and broke his own league record for returns and return yardage (393 yards) while still making an impact on both sides of the line.

The Cards looked forward to playing soon in a possible new 53,000 seat riverfront stadium. Until then, the Cardinals would line up initially in cozy Sportsman’s Park. “This is good news for St. Louis,” exclaimed August Busch, the president of the St. Louis baseball Cardinals. “The football Cardinals will give our city a year-round program of high-quality sports,” Busch told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

While Chicago Cardinals’ fans had feared this final announcement, it likely caught a few journalists by surprise due to the ever-present denials by Walter Wolfner during the preceding week. The Tampa (FL) Times noted: “The shift of the Cards to St. Louis, announced by commissioner Pete Rozelle, came as a surprise. The day before, managing director Walter Wolfner had denied that such a widely rumored move was contemplated.”

In fact, the Times continued, “Wolfner assured the press that he did not contemplate a move of the club and emphasized that such a thing would not happen in 1960. It would cost too much to move, he said, and ‘such a move is not necessary.'”

In the end, Wolfner succumbed to the lure of a monster $500,000 pay day from the NFL for “moving” expenses. The Times added: “A large part of it, Rozelle disclosed, was underwritten by the rival Chicago Bears.” The “donation” was well worth it to the Bears and owner George Halas, since it would allow just one team to enjoy the previously blacked out and rapidly expanding Chicago television market.